Stop sending workers overseas: Amien

Stop sending workers overseas: Amien

SURAKARTA, Central Java: People's Consultative Assembly
Speaker Amien Rais threw his weight behind growing calls for the
government to suspend the sending of workers overseas following
reports of the rape and abuse of Indonesian maids in Saudi
Arabia.

He also backed demands for Minister of Manpower and
Transmigration Jacob Nuwa Wea to resign over his failure to
protect Indonesian migrant workers.

"It is only logical for the House of Representatives to ask
Jacob Nuwa Wea to step down. But for me, the most important thing
is to temporarily halt the sending of Indonesian workers abroad
for six months," Amien said on Saturday in Surakarta, Central
Java.

He said the suspension was necessary to revise the regulations
and recruitment system to protect Indonesians working overseas,
so as to protect them from further mistreatment.

Without revised rules, Indonesian workers will continue to be
treated like slaves, which is an insult to the nation, Amien
said.

"I have seen Indonesian workers who have just returned from
Kuwait, Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia and Jordan. Their condition is
extremely sorrowful. Some of them have been raped and had
hydrochloric acid poured on them," he said.

Amien said that in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and the
Middle East, Indonesian workers suffered more than workers from
other countries.

"This happens because other countries give extraordinary
attention to their workers overseas." --Antara